The Samsung 960 and 1080 use the much-praised and -maligned Faroudja chip. Many have decried the macroblocking that the chip seems to cause in some cases. But very few have clearly explained what the advantage of the chip is. Would anyone care to go to bat for the Faroudja chip and explain what is does better than other chips and why a player with the chip might give better results--in this or that respect--than a player that doesn't have it (say, the Samsung 950)? Thanks.

The Faroudja has always been one of the best chipsets for dealing with improperly flagged video. However, as technology advances, the gap between Faroudja and other chipsets has been narrowing...especially over the last year. For example, more and more new chipsets are able to process DVDs correctly even if they are improperly flagged (although the HD950, using a somewhat aged chipset, still fails a few tests on this).

The other two components of these chipsets is de-interlacing and upscaling. De-interlacing a broadcast video is quite complex, and the Faroudja chip is pretty much the leader in this area. The thing to remember, though, is that it is actually dead-simple to "deinterlace" a DVD that was mastered from a 24 fps source, like a movie (see my previous posts on this thread for an explanation why). So most people do not actually see the benefit of this technology when watching the majority of their DVDs. Upscaling is the other component. In my experience, the Faroudja seems to have more "tweakables" than most (sharpness, edge-enhancement, noise suppression), with the exception of the latest Sonys which actually have two different noise suppression settings. The quality of the upscaling algorithm in the Faroudja is superior to most other chipsets, and this is very important for a DVD player. But again, the gap is narrowing. From reading some other threads, the new $100->$130 players from Sony, Panasonic, and LG seem to be coming pretty close to Faroudja in upscaled image quality. Especially the Sony.

My guess is that Samsung went with the Faroudja because the Vaddis 888 probably does not output 1080p, whereas the Faroudja does (probably because Genesis also packages the Faroudja as part of their TV deinterlacer/upscaler solutions).

Mofongo

Anybody else notice any ghosting with the 960? I've been playing around with the HD960 and the Sony DVP-NC85H all night over HDMI, and while I do like the HD960's picture better overall, I keep noticing ghosting problems every now and then.

If you want to see a real glaring example, play the end credits of Star Wars Ep 3 Revenge of the Sith on the 960. Every time a new name appears on the screen the entire background starfield 'twinkles' (I know stars twinkle but in this case they aren't supposed to!).

I could not get rid of the ghosting with my limited use the unit. Samsung, in their infinite wisedome, does not allow you to turn Off any of their functions. Unfortunately, enabling DNR on the Faroudja chipset can cause ghosting, and without being able to fully turn it off, it will be a constant error.

Hi everyone.
I've noticed Samsung is not advertising the HD1080 on their site anymore. Any guessing on what happened?

Hi everyone.
I've noticed Samsung is not advertising the HD1080 on their site anymore. Any guessing on what happened?

All I can recall having seen is still there on the Samsung site:

http://www.samsung.com/PressCenter/PressRelease/PressRelease.asp?seq=20060107_0000223786

If a manual or something else more substantial was once there and then removed, that sounds bad for any release of the product.

Chris

It wouldn't surprise me if the Samsung universal player, the HD1080, never sees the light of day here. I hope it will be released since I it might be an improvement over the prior universal players.

Chris

If the HD1080 isn't released, the new Oppo DV970HD is a universal player and appears to be getting mostly good reviews and it is $150 plus shipping. Oppo customer service is exceptional and their products are a very good value. With the uncertainty of SACD and DVD-A releases, I am not sure how many more universal players will be made.

Chris

Just bought a HD960 and I am waiting on a Samsung Slim Fit S3082WH HD TV to arrive.

Question: I read somewhere that the 3082WH's native resolution is 1080i. Does that mean that if you feed it a 720p signal, it will automatically upconvert to 1080i? i.e. what happens when you hook up the upconverting HD960 via HDMI and have the output set to 720P? Will it simply scale that image up yet again to 1080i? And, if so, does that mean I would be better off sending the 1080i signal out of the DVD Player?

There seems to be a lot of knowledgeable AV folks here... what setting would you recommend with an upconverting DVD player like the 960 for the best possible image on a native 1080i S3082WH?

Just bought a HD960 and I am waiting on a Samsung Slim Fit S3082WH HD TV to arrive.

Question: I read somewhere that the 3082WH's native resolution is 1080i. Does that mean that if you feed it a 720p signal, it will automatically upconvert to 1080i? i.e. what happens when you hook up the upconverting HD960 via HDMI and have the output set to 720P? Will it simply scale that image up yet again to 1080i? And, if so, does that mean I would be better off sending the 1080i signal out of the DVD Player?

There seems to be a lot of knowledgeable AV folks here... what setting would you recommend with an upconverting DVD player like the 960 for the best possible image on a native 1080i S3082WH?

I have a 30" 1080i Widescreen CRT HDTV and use a DVD player upscaling to 1080i. It will accept 480i, 480p and 720p but the picture looks best if the player is set at the native resolution. You will likely find the same. Having the DVD player do the scaling provides a very subtle improvement in my opinion. Don't expect DVD to magically look like HDTV.

Chris

There seems to be a lot of knowledgeable AV folks here... what setting would you recommend with an upconverting DVD player like the 960 for the best possible image on a native 1080i S3082WH?

If the resolution is natively 1080i, then you will want to send it a 1080i signal, as this will be best suited for your display. If you feed it any other resolution, such as 720p, the television will need to do an internal interlacing and upscaling, which can introduce unwanted artifacting.

If the resolution is natively 1080i, then you will want to send it a 1080i signal, as this will be best suited for your display. If you feed it any other resolution, such as 720p, the television will need to do an internal interlacing and upscaling, which can introduce unwanted artifacting.

Thank you for the quick responce Neuromancer! Much appreciated!

I am set to calibrate my Samsung 3082 CRT HDTV and I have a question as it pretains to the Faroudja... I know the Faroudja chip allows certain HDMI video settings. However, I want to send the cleanest, least processed signal possible (other than the upconverting, of course) to the 82. I saw that the Faroudja offered an "Edge Enhancement" (values 1-5), a "Sharpness" (values 1-5) and a Black (values on and off), among others . Would you suggest dropping those values down to "1" before calibrating the Samsung 3082 via Avia or VE?

Thank you for your help!

One thing that is not clear to me is what contrast and brightness (and saturation for that matter) settings in the HD960 correspond most closely to unaltered. In theory, since we are going digital all the way, there should be a setting where the YCrCb values coming out of the HDMI port (assuming your display takes that) are the same as the YCrCb values stored on the DVD. Is this level "3" or "1"? I assumed "3" since that was what it came from the factory as, and I figured that the unaltered setting would be in the middle so you could adjust it up or down if needed. But it seems from reading the above posts that "unaltered" is "1".

Mofongo

I have always had mine set to 3.

My suspicion that 3 is the "correct" (or least-altered) level for sat, contrast, and brightness on the HD960 is because the settings on my TV for proper calibration are very close to what they are for the HDMI coming out of my cable box. But I have not done extensive testing. Maybe this weekend I will fiddle with it some more.

Mofongo

OK... I re-read the entire thread. Is the consesus now that "3" is the least altered?

And has anyone found out if it is best to leave the "Black" setting "on" or "off" prior or post calibration?

Thanks!

This message was posted and then deleted:

"What does the message... "HDMI Audio not supported" mean precisely?

I just purchased this Samsung HD960 only to get this message on all DVDs I have inserted. "

I have noticed the same thing, but I thought it was related to my display, the HLS5687. I use HDMI 2 input, that has audio inputs incase you are use a DVI to HDMI cable and need to transfer the audio to the TV. I am running a straight HDMI into it, and I thought the message was somehow related to that, but apparently not. So what does this message mean?

You can't send a DTS stream to a television using the HDMI output. Change to Dolby Digital.

well, not sure I undestand. I have the HD960 set to both DD and Bitstream, so it will send out either a DTS or a DD signal, whichever version I prefer to watch. I run the audio out to my receiver via optical and the video to the display via HDMI. So far, I have only used DD audio, confirmed by the display on the front of the receiver. So how is it sending a DTS bitstream to the display?

I was told that I had to set the HD960 to bitstream if I intended to use DTS. Is that not accurate? Should I reset it to PCM? What would I use bitstream for then?

well, not sure I undestand. I have the HD960 set to both DD and Bitstream, so it will send out either a DTS or a DD signal, whichever version I prefer to watch. I run the audio out to my receiver via optical and the video to the display via HDMI. So far, I have only used DD audio, confirmed by the display on the front of the receiver. So how is it sending a DTS bitstream to the display?

I was told that I had to set the HD960 to bitstream if I intended to use DTS. Is that not accurate? Should I reset it to PCM? What would I use bitstream for then?

Same thing happes to me... I am running this in to a Samsung SlimFit 82 HD, and I get that message everytime I do a chaptor skip. As far as I can tell, you have to switch it to PCM audio (i.e. "Stereo") if you want to run audio to your TV.

This is not an issue for me, as I am running the audio out via an optical to my 5.1 setup (I have it set to Bitstream, DTS, No Compression, and No Downsampling). That message gets annoying, but you can turn off the "messaging" in the DVD Player.

I hope that helps!

This has happened twice now with this player, and I want to see if it has happened to anyone else.

While watching a DVD, the screen will suddenly change color to magenta, and the image iteself will also get flattened to half size and sit at the top of the screen. The only feed going in to the TV is an HDMI. Powering the DVD off and on corrects it, and it does not appear to be an issue with the TV. In both instances, I had the remote in my hand and *may* have hit a button. Of course, I tried to repeat the issue by going through all the controls on the remote (I was not able to)... it almost looked like an error you get when you try to view a progressive scan image on a standard def TV, but putting it in Progressive Mode did not replicate the error.

Very odd... is there a short in the box? Crappy cable maybe? Anyone else see this before?

This has happened twice now with this player, and I want to see if it has happened to anyone else.

While watching a DVD, the screen will suddenly change color to magenta, and the image iteself will also get flattened to half size and sit at the top of the screen. The only feed going in to the TV is an HDMI. Powering the DVD off and on corrects it, and it does not appear to be an issue with the TV. In both instances, I had the remote in my hand and *may* have hit a button. Of course, I tried to repeat the issue by going through all the controls on the remote (I was not able to)... it almost looked like an error you get when you try to view a progressive scan image on a standard def TV, but putting it in Progressive Mode did not replicate the error.

Very odd... is there a short in the box? Crappy cable maybe? Anyone else see this before?

Huh. If you go to Amazon and check the reviews for this player, you will find one review mentioning a similar problem, however, I think that reviewer concluded the problem had to do with a factory setting that did not work with certain output choices (e.g., component). Sorry I don't know more.

I was told that I had to set the HD960 to bitstream if I intended to use DTS. Is that not accurate? Should I reset it to PCM? What would I use bitstream for then?

You will want to use Bitstream if the HDMI is being connected to a receiver which can decode multi-channel digital audio. If you use this option to a television (which has no decoding chipset for multi-channel digital audio) then you will get the error message. Try switching to Dolby Digital audio streams (it defaults to DTS if you have DTS enabled) or change the HDMI audio from Bitsream to PCM.

I have found in many cases that the DVD-HD960 will revert to PCM (2 channel) when I select Dolby Digital, thereby allowing me to effortlessly watch a film without having to stop playback to enter Setup menu.

well, I tried turning DTS off in the HD 960 set up menu and it made no difference. And if I change the Bitstream setting to PCM, the AVR 635 will not detect a DD 5.1 signal and defaults to Dolby Pro Logic. So neither of these suggestions will remove the message that appears on the display.

You will want to use Bitstream if the HDMI is being connected to a receiver which can decode multi-channel digital audio. If you use this option to a television (which has no decoding chipset for multi-channel digital audio) then you will get the error message. Try switching to Dolby Digital audio streams (it defaults to DTS if you have DTS enabled) or change the HDMI audio from Bitsream to PCM.

I have found in many cases that the DVD-HD960 will revert to PCM (2 channel) when I select Dolby Digital, thereby allowing me to effortlessly watch a film without having to stop playback to enter Setup menu.


Thanks for this info. I am wondering if this DVD player is workable for those of us who need to drive the audio speakers of our monitors AS WELL as those of our Dolby surround sound systems. For example, because my monitor is mounted over a fireplace, I need to use the relatively crummy monitor speakers as the CENTER channel (because there is no room over the fireplace for a center channel speaker). In such an instance, are the settings from this DVD player able to accomodate me using the HDMI cord between the player and the monitor?

Thanks.
Richard

well, I tried turning DTS off in the HD 960 set up menu and it made no difference. And if I change the Bitstream setting to PCM, the AVR 635 will not detect a DD 5.1 signal and defaults to Dolby Pro Logic. So neither of these suggestions will remove the message that appears on the display.

Is there a setting on the DVD-HD960 which allows you to select the HDMI Ouput as being a Monitor rather than TV? If so, change it to Monitor, as this will force the unit not to send an HDMI audio signal through the HDMI output.

As a side note, the manual states that you should set the Digital output to Bitstream to output a DD signal over the optical output. Otherwise, if you select PCM, it converts audio to a two channel output. Then if you set DTS to on, it will also output a DTS bitstream via the optical output if one is present.

The player has three video settings for HDMI: Standard TV, Monitor, and TV-RGB. It makes no difference which one I use, the message still appears. The picture is washed out some on the TV-RGB setting, but looks about the same on Monitor or Standard TV. I am using a HLS5687, and I am not sure which one I should using to tell the truth. I have it on Monitor for now.

Got any other ideas?

ny region hack yet/ how is pal to ntsc conversion?

The player has three video settings for HDMI: Standard TV, Monitor, and TV-RGB. It makes no difference which one I use, the message still appears. In fact, I can see no difference in the picture at all, regardless of the setting. I am using a HLS5687, and I am not sure which one I should using to tell the truth.

When you set the HDMI Out to Monitor and the Digital Output to Bitstream, does the message appear, and is the audio (bitstream) sent properly to your H/K AVR635?

When you set the HDMI Out to Monitor and the Digital Output to Bitstream, does the message appear, and is the audio (bitstream) sent properly to your H/K AVR635?

Regardless of what the HDMI setting is on, Standard TV, TV-RGB, or Monitor, the message appears. Yes, the digital bitstream is ON and must be on in order for me to send a DD or DTS signal to my receiver via the optical output from the HD960, so turning it off is not an option. I verified that the 635 can receive either DD or DTS in this arrangement.

Originally Posted by Mofongo
One thing that is not clear to me is what contrast and brightness (and saturation for that matter) settings in the HD960 correspond most closely to unaltered. In theory, since we are going digital all the way, there should be a setting where the YCrCb values coming out of the HDMI port (assuming your display takes that) are the same as the YCrCb values stored on the DVD. Is this level "3" or "1"? I assumed "3" since that was what it came from the factory as, and I figured that the unaltered setting would be in the middle so you could adjust it up or down if needed. But it seems from reading the above posts that "unaltered" is "1".

Mofongo

Originally Posted by Mofongo
I have always had mine set to 3.

My suspicion that 3 is the "correct" (or least-altered) level for sat, contrast, and brightness on the HD960 is because the settings on my TV for proper calibration are very close to what they are for the HDMI coming out of my cable box. But I have not done extensive testing. Maybe this weekend I will fiddle with it some more.

Mofongo

Just want to revisit these posts from Mofongo, becuase I am not sure what the latest thoughts are on this.

I know the Faroudja chip on this 960 allows certain HDMI video settings. However, I want to send the cleanest, least processed signal possible (other than the upconverting, of course) to my Smansung 3082HDTV. This player offers an "Edge Enhancement" (values 1-5), a "Sharpness" (values 1-5) and a Black (values on and off), among others.

Would you suggest dropping those values down to "1" to turn them "off", or is the general consensus that "3" is the "least" altered?

And has anyone found out if it is best to leave the "Black" setting "on" or "off" prior or post calibration? The manual is maddingly vague about what this setting actually does.

Thanks!

ditto on the above. I ran DVE with them set to 1 and black level on, but not sure if that is correct.

Based on the experimentation I have done, I am pretty positive that least-processed values for Edge Enhancement, Sharpness, and Noise Reduction are 1. This makes sense since these are all filters that are applied to an image, so we want the least amount of each.

Brightness, Contrast and Saturation are more difficult. I have mine set to "3", but I have not fiddled with other values in any systematic way. My rationale for keeping them at 3 is that my TV requires the least adjustment from its default values to achieve proper calibration.

Black level is a mystery. Using AVIA (the the HD960 set to "TV-RGB" mode), I could get a more accurate black level with it set to the default "on", so I am guessing that "on" means "black = 16" when in TV-RGB mode.

Mofongo

Mofongo, why did you use TV-RGB instead of either TV or Monitor? I ran DVE in TV and then switch them around and found little difference in the TV and Monitor picture, but the TV-RGB was washed out and lost saturation at the same settings.

I also found that my DVE settings did not transfer well to the picture when viewing my cable STB. I am having to tweak it quite a bit to get a good picture.

Based on the experimentation I have done, I am pretty positive that least-processed values for Edge Enhancement, Sharpness, and Noise Reduction are 1. This makes sense since these are all filters that are applied to an image, so we want the least amount of each.

Brightness, Contrast and Saturation are more difficult. I have mine set to "3", but I have not fiddled with other values in any systematic way. My rationale for keeping them at 3 is that my TV requires the least adjustment from its default values to achieve proper calibration.

Black level is a mystery. Using AVIA (the the HD960 set to "TV-RGB" mode), I could get a more accurate black level with it set to the default "on", so I am guessing that "on" means "black = 16" when in TV-RGB mode.

Mofongo

Brilliant... thanks for taking the time to reply! I had come to similar conclusions, but it is good to know that someone else has as well. Validation is GOOD!

But I second Tarheelz question: what is the advantage of using TV-RGB mode? I have a CRT HDTV connected via HDMI... is there any advantage in me using the RGB over the standard TV mode?

Thanks Mofongo!!!

Mofongo, why did you use TV-RGB instead of either TV or Monitor? I ran DVE in TV and then switch them around and found little difference in the TV and Monitor picture, but the TV-RGB was washed out and lost saturation at the same settings.

I also found that my DVE settings did not transfer well to the picture when viewing my cable STB. I am having to tweak it quite a bit to get a good picture.

I use what I use because my TV does not give me a choice. My TV only accepts RGB, so I cannot use regular TV mode (i.e. YCbCr). For 1080p signals, it expects "Monitor" values (0->255), and for all other signals it expects "TV-RGB" values (16->235).

For "Monitor", there is no difference with black set to "on" or "off" (which makes sense).

Mofongo

But I second Tarheelz question: what is the advantage of using TV-RGB mode? I have a CRT HDTV connected via HDMI... is there any advantage in me using the RGB over the standard TV mode?


If your HDTV works with the HD960 in "TV" mode (i.e. using YCrCb values), then that is most likely the best mode to use a couple of potential reasons. The most important reason is that "TV" mode is the only mode you can get 10-bit color if your TV supports 10-bit color, meaning 10-bits per color channel per pixel. Just to make things more confusing than they already are, the AV community seems to refer to the number of bits per color channel per pixel, which is different from the computing community (where I "come from") which refers to the total number of bits per pixel. Thus, "8-bit" in AV-land means "24-bit" in computer-land (8 bits X 3 color channels = 24 bits per pixel).

I do not know for sure if the HD960 outputs 10-bit, however the tech specs for the FLI2301 chipset say one of the outputs is "digital 16/20-bit YCrCb (4:2:2)". 20-bit 4:2:2 would (I am pretty sure) be the equivalent of what is called "10-bit color" by the AV community (the "4:2:2" refers to a simple compression technique whereby the 30 bits are compressed to 20 and sent over the HDMI cable, thereby allowing 30 bits of color to be transmitted within the bandwidth limitations of the HDMI connection). So I would guess that the HD960 does indeed output 10-bit. Although the MPEG-II on DVDs is only "8-bit" (per channel per pixel uncompressed), the processing and upscaling of the DVD player can potentially make use of the extra dynamic range in the post-processed image. RGB modes only support 8-bit color (that is, 8 bits per pixel per color channel...a total of 24 bits per pixel). Consequently, using "Monitor" or "TV-RGB" will limit you to 8-bit.

Now, if your TV does support "TV" mode but only in 8-bit, then you are still probably better off using "TV" mode over "TV-RGB" since the dvd player will be outputting values in the same colorspace as the DVD (DVDs store their information in YCrCb since it is more efficient to compress).

"Monitor" mode opens a while different can of worms. Both "Monitor" and "TV-RGB" modes use RGB values, but they normalize them differently. "Monitor" displays expect black=0 and white=255. "TV-RGB" displays (in the U.S.) expect black=16 and white=235. As far as I know, there is no way for the display to tell the DVD player which one it wants. So you have to guess. My guess would be that for any display that takes YCrCb values would expect "TV-RGB" values for RGB. But if for some bizarre reason your TV takes both YCrCb values (which also range from 16 to 235 for 8-bit), and "Monitor" RGB values, then you might be better off using "Monitor" because you get some extra color depth.

Confused, yet? :)

Mofongo

Confused, yet? :)

Mofongo

Ha ha! Your explination was quite good, actually... I learned something new! Perhaps they should hire you to re-write those silly Samsung manuals! I appreciate you taking the time to explain it to us... very useful information (well, for budding AV nerds like myself, at any rate. :))

Thanks again Mofongo!

If the Faroudja chip can cause MB with DLPs, why did Samsung release this player with this chip knowing that Samsung DLP owners will buy it and experience MB with their own DLPs?

Excluding the members of this board, lots of average consumers will buy brand matching products because of brand recognition, etc.

Example: I have a Samsung TV(DLP), then this Samsung 960 will be great with it!! Ring up both mister BB CSR!!

I would think Samsung is aware of MB, so I'm confused on their market approach..

Hey guys,

I have a Sanyo Z3 + Oppo 971 connected thru HDMI (dvixhdmi) with very nice results.

I also have in the TV room a Sony 34XBR800 (CRT) wich can display something in between 720p and 1080i, so I'm looking for a player that can perform upscaling to 720p/1080i thru component ans ALSO has a good deinterlacer/scaler.

I thought about the new Oppo 970, but they claim to be fully HDCP complyant so CCS-encrypted content will not up thru the component connection.

There is the LG 9921, wich is still unknown for it's overall performance.

The NeoNeo has several issues.

And now we have the Samsung 960 that will probably have the same hacks as previous 941 and 950 to unlock hdcp, region free and up thru component.

So I ask you guys, is there anything else under $300 that will provide me a GOOD solution for my needs and that can outperform my Denon 2900 with this Sony ?

Thanks

If the Faroudja chip can cause MB with DLPs, why did Samsung release this player with this chip knowing that Samsung DLP owners will buy it and experience MB with their own DLPs?

Excluding the members of this board, lots of average consumers will buy brand matching products because of brand recognition, etc.

Example: I have a Samsung TV(DLP), then this Samsung 960 will be great with it!! Ring up both mister BB CSR!!

I would think Samsung is aware of MB, so I'm confused on their market approach..

This is certainly a good point and Panasonic did the same thing with their DVD-S97 and DVD-S77 and displays that suffer from the macroblocking enhancement problem. I believe the majority, maybe all, of the current Samsung displays don't show the problem. Still there are likely to be some unhappy owners, especially with recent prior generations of displays. Maybe exchange the DVD-960 for a DVD-950 somehow if the problem is apparent.

Chris

Hey guys,

I have a Sanyo Z3 + Oppo 971 connected thru HDMI (dvixhdmi) with very nice results.

I also have in the TV room a Sony 34XBR800 (CRT) wich can display something in between 720p and 1080i, so I'm looking for a player that can perform upscaling to 720p/1080i thru component ans ALSO has a good deinterlacer/scaler.

I thought about the new Oppo 970, but they claim to be fully HDCP complyant so CCS-encrypted content will not up thru the component connection.

There is the LG 9921, wich is still unknown for it's overall performance.

The NeoNeo has several issues.

And now we have the Samsung 960 that will probably have the same hacks as previous 941 and 950 to unlock hdcp, region free and up thru component.

So I ask you guys, is there anything else under $300 that will provide me a GOOD solution for my needs ?

Thanks

The three I like currently are the LG DVB418, about $80 refurbished now. It requires a firmware upgrade to the LG LDA531, which is simple if you have CD writer. The Samsung DVD-HD950 and DVD-HD941 require a simple remote control hack to upscale over component. but I have read the 2006 build DVD-HD950 players no longer include the option. The Zenith DVB318 with old firmware is ok as well, but I now prefer the DVB418.

Chris

If both the Westy and HD960 had HDMI 1.3 then you probably can choose any of the three formats. Unfortunetly they are both HDMI 1.2.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1975596,00.asp?kc=ETRSS02129TX1K0000532

Wow...yet another reason to delay the purchase of my dream 61" DLP TV. :)

Actually, I need a bigger house first. But now the pressure's off to buy a new house until next year.

Mofongo

Thanks again Mofongo!

No problem. Since I have always been fascinated with electronic hardware (I work in high-performance computing largely for that reason), and my new HDTV is my latest fixation, I consequently spend way too much time learning about this stuff.

My wife thanks you for listening to me. Otherwise, she would have to listen to me talk about it for hours on end. :)

Mofongo

Back to Westinghouse 42" and HD960 problem - has anybody figured out yet why 1080p isn't working over HDMI?

I hate to think that it's TV's problem: TV doesn't communicate correctly with HD960 via HDMI, so HD960 thinks that it doesn't have 1080p...

I think people who can read this should be able to tell different colors without having some standard chart tell you what color it is. Do you have a manual for each movie you are watching telling you what color something should be? Sky color = White with .2% grey. Hair = brown with 3% redish tint. Even if you had such a manual you wouldn't know whether something is off without the standard for comparison.



:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Why do I get the feeling Lambeau Field in December looks fantasmagorically green on your television?

Hi Mofongo,


I tried looking at the user manual, spec sheet, and the site specs for HD-960. I could not find any mention of this product having user upgradable firmware. Am I missing out something?

Thanks,
Debashis

Regardless of what the HDMI setting is on, Standard TV, TV-RGB, or Monitor, the message appears. Yes, the digital bitstream is ON and must be on in order for me to send a DD or DTS signal to my receiver via the optical output from the HD960, so turning it off is not an option. I verified that the 635 can receive either DD or DTS in this arrangement.

is this a dead issue or does anyone have any ideas on how to eliminate this? How do you get the player to not show the message "HDMI audio not supported" other than turning off messages? And what makes it display this message? Is it because you are routing the audio out via some other method, such as optical or coaxil? Does the player not have the capabilaity to send the audio out via HDMI if another digital output is utilized?

Hi Mofongo,


I tried looking at the user manual, spec sheet, and the site specs for HD-960. I could not find any mention of this product having user upgradable firmware. Am I missing out something?

Thanks,
Debashis

I don't know if you have missed anything but the DVD-HD841/HD941/HD950 and several other Samsung players have user upgradable firmware.

Chris

Based on the experimentation I have done, I am pretty positive that least-processed values for Edge Enhancement, Sharpness, and Noise Reduction are 1. This makes sense since these are all filters that are applied to an image, so we want the least amount of each.

Brightness, Contrast and Saturation are more difficult. I have mine set to "3", but I have not fiddled with other values in any systematic way. My rationale for keeping them at 3 is that my TV requires the least adjustment from its default values to achieve proper calibration.

Black level is a mystery. Using AVIA (the the HD960 set to "TV-RGB" mode), I could get a more accurate black level with it set to the default "on", so I am guessing that "on" means "black = 16" when in TV-RGB mode.

Mofongo

Update! I just got off the phone with Samsung... I got this question elevated all the way past their Level 2 and in to the techs that work with service centers (in fact, the guy thought at first I was with a service center). Ultimatly, I can only pass on what he told me, and I did gently grill him to make sure he was confident in what he was telling me.

1) The "least processed" setting is "3" accross the board... NOT "1". "3" is like their "zero" setting.
2) These settings are all disabled in 720p and 480p mode... it specifically says that in their service manuals and the guy made a point in telling me. That is interesting and I don't know if it is 100% true, as you can adjust the settings in 720P mode... but he says they won't do anything to the outgoing image.
3) The "Black" setting is an auto contrast mode, that will reign in scenes that are kicking out high contrast images and generally improve the way black is represented.

So, in a nutshell, the default settings for this unit are the "cleanest" way to send out video.

I am going to order the service manual for this from J&J International... 800-627-4368. The Samsung Techs couldn't give it out to me as it was located in a secure site that only service centers can access.

I hope that helps anyone who is interested!

Wow...good work! Now we finally know what the black setting actually does! And that seems to settle the issue for at least the basic calibration settings (brightness, contrast, saturation). This is very useful information.

If what this guy told you is true "across the board," I am having a little trouble understanding what a noise reduction setting of 1 or 2 means. If 3 is no Noise Reduction (NR) processing, how do you have even less than no NR??? Sharpness (S) and Edge Enhancement (EE) I can kind of see since you can choose deliberately blur things for settings 1 and 2, but what do you do for noise reduction...add more noise?? :o

I have fiddled with all three of these settings a great deal. With a Sharpness of anything other than 1, I can see ringing around the edges of the text in the setup menu, which is a common byproduct of a sharpening filter. Therefore, this leads me to believe that 1 is the least aggressive amount of sharpening. I see no evidence of deliberate blurring.

With NR and EE, the effect of seeing multiple ghosts of an object moving very quickly across the screen gets worse as you increase them from 1. Again, this leads me to think that 1 is the least aggressive amount of filter application, and 5 is the most.

Perhaps what he means for these particular settings is that 3 corresponds to the default for the Genesis chip? I could see that being the case.

Definitely let us know when you get the service manual. Thanks for the info!

Mofongo

Hi Mofongo,


I tried looking at the user manual, spec sheet, and the site specs for HD-960. I could not find any mention of this product having user upgradable firmware. Am I missing out something?

Thanks,
Debashis

Look at page 59 of the manual (2nd page of the Reference section).

Mofongo

If what this guy told you is true "across the board," I am having a little trouble understanding what a noise reduction setting of 1 or 2 means. If 3 is no Noise Reduction (NR) processing, how do you have even less than no NR??? Sharpness (S) and Edge Enhancement (EE) I can kind of see since you can choose deliberately blur things for settings 1 and 2, but what do you do for noise reduction...add more noise?? :o

I have fiddled with all three of these settings a great deal. With a Sharpness of anything other than 1, I can see ringing around the edges of the text in the setup menu, which is a common byproduct of a sharpening filter. Therefore, this leads me to believe that 1 is the least aggressive amount of sharpening. I see no evidence of deliberate blurring.

Mofongo

You know, even after talking to the guy, I am not sure if I 100% belived him. It seemed like, all the way up the chain, this was the first time anyone had asked questions about the default settings on this player, and there was a lot of thumbing through the service manual to get answers to my questions. :) In my own experimentation, I can vouch for what you say... in fact, I have left those settings on "1" for the time being.

But at least we go an explination for the "Black" setting!

Once I get the service manual, I will let you all know what it has to say!

So what is the final verdict on the 960? is it worth getting if you have a 1080p set?

So what is the final verdict on the 960? is it worth getting if you have a 1080p set?

im wondering the same thing too. i got the samsugn hls5087w (1080p) and was wondering if the hd960 is worth it or should i just go for the oppo dv970? price isnt much fo a diff between the two.

only thing im using now is an xbox for movies.

I was going to keep the 960, but now I'm thinking I may return it for the oppo 971. I frequently get these horizontal scan lines when in 1080p - that go away after a minute. The player has super slow response time, and the picture quality is good -but i just think it can get better. My initial tweaks (with DVE disc)eliminated most of the blocking, but i'm now seeing it more.

Wish I had an extra $200 laying around so I could buy the Oppo and compare side by side.

It's a tough call, I need a second opinion!

I was going to keep the 960, but now I'm thinking I may return it for the oppo 971. I frequently get these horizontal scan lines when in 1080p - that go away after a minute. The player has super slow response time, and the picture quality is good -but i just think it can get better. My initial tweaks (with DVE disc)eliminated most of the blocking, but i'm now seeing it more.

Wish I had an extra $200 laying around so I could buy the Oppo and compare side by side.

It's a tough call, I need a second opinion!

isnt it possible you could also get the same macroblocking on the oppo 971? since they seem to use the same chipset?

isnt it possible you could also get the same macroblocking on the oppo 971? since they seem to use the same chipset?yup, you get it in both. it looks like some people have come up with some great results with the oppo after some calibration.

I spent another hour today setting the 960, still wasn't happy with the results. For the heck of it went to BB and picked up a sony ns75h and tried it tonight. MUCH BETTER! *Haven't even used DVE yet*

I'll stick with the sony75h & hls6187 combo until a HDDVD upgrade next year. This feels like a part time job - whew!

is this a dead issue or does anyone have any ideas on how to eliminate this? How do you get the player to not show the message "HDMI audio not supported" other than turning off messages? And what makes it display this message? Is it because you are routing the audio out via some other method, such as optical or coaxil? Does the player not have the capabilaity to send the audio out via HDMI if another digital output is utilized?

I am reposting this in the hope that more people have bought the 960 and maybe someone else has experienced this. Has anyone found a reason and/or solution for this message being displayed when using the HDMI?

To recap, I have the HD960 hooked to the HLS5687, via HDMI. Audio to the AVR635, via Coax. Also have a STB connected to the TV via HDMI, no issues. TV speakers off. Message displays at the top of the sceen for about 5 seconds when disc is started, then disappears. Regardless of what the HDMI setting is on, Standard TV, TV-RGB, or Monitor, the message appears. Yes, the HD960 digital bitstream is ON and must be on in order for me to send a DD or DTS signal to my receiver via the coax or optical output from the HD960, so turning it off is not an option. I verified that the 635 can receive both DD or DTS in this arrangement. Turn Bitstream off, and only analog goes to the receiver.

Any ideas? Is there some other setting I am missing here?

not really a fix, but if you go to setup -> dispay setup there is on option called screen messages. I turned this off, and now I don't see that message anymore... or any other messages, for that matter.

yes, I know. that is what I have done (mentioned in my original posting). But I would like to know why this is happening, in case I have a defect somewhere.

I am looking for the lowest cost DVD player which outputs a signal via HDMI (either 480i or 480p). The thinking here is that I will let my Samsung HLS-5087 deinterlace/scale the signal as necessary instead of paying for a redundant capability in an upscaling DVD player. Presumably taking a digital signal via HDMI to the Samsung is of value since it cuts out a digital to analog conversion. Any thoughts on whether this makes any sense and what DVD players are worthwhile?

Hi, I am a new member though I have followed this forum for a long time. But to your question of DVD players with HDMI outputs. I own a Samsung DVD HD 960 and it has a great looking output on 480p to my H31 Optoma projector DVI input. However on the menu setup for my Optoma the display mode in the Samsung menu must be set to TV monitor for optimum results. On the other setting TV-RGB the display was not as crisp. Overall I am satisfied the picture quality.

I am looking for the lowest cost DVD player which outputs a signal via HDMI (either 480i or 480p). The thinking here is that I will let my Samsung HLS-5087 deinterlace/scale the signal as necessary instead of paying for a redundant capability in an upscaling DVD player. Presumably taking a digital signal via HDMI to the Samsung is of value since it cuts out a digital to analog conversion. Any thoughts on whether this makes any sense and what DVD players are worthwhile?

Heck, I picked up a refurbished Samsung VR325 DVD-R/VCR from TigerDirect for $149 minus a $50 rebate that I received in three days, for a net of around $100. I wanted to replace my old VCR and be able to copy tapes over to DVD. It has HDMI.

I am confused from Samsung's press release about the 960 and 1080, and 960's brochure(1080i/720p on HDMI)

The DVD-HD960 and DVD-HD1080 boast a natural, clear picture, upconverted by way of DCDi by Faroudja (Directional Correlation De-interlacing),
which substantially eliminates jagged edges that appear when standard interlaced video is viewed on progressive-scan displays.

The cream of this year's DVD player crop, the DVD-HD1080 boasts 5.1ch DVD Audio / SACD support via its HDMI output and true HD 1080p progressive output. This means your home theater can become your home concert arena when watching favorite music DVDs. The unit has an emotional Jog-shuttle, allowing for improved ease of navigation within the DVD's content

Sounds like only the 1080 has the true 1080P output, but not the 960.

I am confused from Samsung's press release about the 960 and 1080, and 960's brochure(1080i/720p on HDMI) Sounds like only the 1080 has the true 1080P output, but not the 960.

That same brochure that you refer to also includes this:

Designed for those who accept nothing less than HDTV quality, the DVD-HD960 upconverts the resolution of conventional DVDs to 1080p/1080i/720p, giving them amazing clarity.

Up-Conversion (1080p/1080i/720p) high picture quality
Samsung’s DVD Players up-convert the resolution of ordinary DVDs to
1080p/1080i/720p High-definition—which means you’ll experience the video and
audio quality you think was possible from a DVD player

Hi-Def conversion DVD player 1080p up conversion up-converts the resolution of ordinary DVDs to 1080p/1080i/720p/high-definition.

HD960 hooked up to HLS5087 using HDMI and audio to A/V receiver.

Set the DVD to manual output 1080p and the movie will randomly lock up the player. The picture freezes, nothing will work accept on/off. Tried this with different new dvds, changed HDMI output setting to auto. Still same thing.

Switching to component and the set doesn't lockup. So something wrong with my DVD upscaler?

Also, have output set to TV-RGB. Haven't tried other settings.

Thanks

I have the exact same issue with my Insignia 1080p 42" LCD display as the Westy, that is, the 1080p display selection from the samsung menu dosn't stick (I know they are more less the same model made by Prima but firmware must be different). My options are less as I do not have any DVI connector. Who should I yell at first, Samsung to the Insignia? I would prefer to get a fix via upgraded firmware on the Samsung.

I have had this player for 2 weeks now and I find a night and day difference over my pioneer dv47ai in PQ although very light and cheap feeling it does a great job upconverting and I am running at 1080p via hdmi(1080p is only through hdmi ) to a hls6767 no complaints video res selection is easily assessed from a button on the remote so you can change res at will they all look good it is a nice player especilly for <200.00

HD960 hooked up to HLS5087 using HDMI and audio to A/V receiver.

Set the DVD to manual output 1080p and the movie will randomly lock up the player. The picture freezes, nothing will work accept on/off. Tried this with different new dvds, changed HDMI output setting to auto. Still same thing.

Switching to component and the set doesn't lockup. So something wrong with my DVD upscaler?

Also, have output set to TV-RGB. Haven't tried other settings.

Thanks
Battle try going stright to tv from dvd player . In my orig setup I bought a pio vsx84tsxi for hdmi switching to replace my vsx47tx but ran into a glitch cable dvr would not work through reciver hdcp at work and the dvd pic would flash black screen for a split second then continue on fine then flash again later 3 to 4 times in a movie . I tried everything to no avail till I ran striaght to tv(hls6767) works perfectly now so I am returning rcvr

So for those who have the player, what is the verdict? Is it a keeper or not.
I am especially interested in hearing from those with a Samsung DLP TV.
I have a Samsung HLP 5063 and I am trying to decide between the HD960 or the OPPO 971.

Thanks!

works fine for me. HLS5687 via HDMI

works fine for me. HLS5687 via HDMI


Thanks, any macroblocking issues.

nope none for me. I calibrated with DVE and use movie mode and it seems to work fine

nope none for me. I calibrated with DVE and use movie mode and it seems to work fine


How is the image/picture quality?

not sure what else I can tell you. It looks fine to me. Had it since early June but I haven't used it too much, just three or four films but they looked good to me. Pearl Harbor, Doom, Gladiator, 3000 Miles to Graceland I think. All were fine, no squirrely pictures or artifacs, no hiccups, no nothing. Just worked like it should. I got all the values turned to 1, and I got the black level set to on, or whatever it is. I am upscaling to 1080p in the player and sending that to the TV, so the TV doesn't do anything to the picture. Some send a 720p to the TV, some even a 480p, and let the TV upscale. I figure they use the same chip, and I have always sent the highest resolution to the TV that I can. 1080p is the TV''s native resolution, so it justs takes the signal in and spits it back out again as is and it looks good to me.

Ok so I have my DVD hooked up to my reciever (yamaha RXV2600) via HDMI, then HDMI out from reciever to my HLS, when I play dvd's on a layer skip or a dvd flaw, finger smudge etc) my reciever goes into a high frequency squeal that will not stop, the squeal is volume adjustable, but I have to turn of the DVD and back on and restart the movie for the noise to go away. DVD set to PCM, since i was doing all via HDMI cable.


Any clues, or anymore info required, or anyone experience this?

I thought you had to set the DVD to Bitstream to get DD 5.1? That's what the manual says on page 51 of the 960 maunal. It says to select Bitstream when connected to a DD decoder. When mine is set to PCM it does not out DD. However, I take my HDMI direct to the TV and run a digital coax to the receiver for audio. Maybe the HDMI going through the receiver is the issue, try running a seperate audio to the receiver and see if that helps.

Wondering whether there is is noticable difference between 1080i & 1080p output via HDMI to a Sammy HLS which supposedly is capable of accepting 1080p). I read a lot on this forum and others, and would like to think that the 960 would be my best choice. However, many rave about the OPPO products, yet they upconvert "only" up to 1080i. Will I be shortchanging my HLS-5687 capabilities going that route?

Anyone using this Samsung with a Sharp LCD? I've got a Sharp 37D90U about 6 weeks ago and now I'm in the market for a nice upconverting dvd player to replace the old Panasonic not-even-progressive-scan POS that I inherited a while back...

I'm pretty much down to this or the OPPO...

So whats the final word, the HD960 is good or not?

Wondering whether there is is noticable difference between 1080i & 1080p output via HDMI to a Sammy HLS which supposedly is capable of accepting 1080p). I read a lot on this forum and others, and would like to think that the 960 would be my best choice. However, many rave about the OPPO products, yet they upconvert "only" up to 1080i. Will I be shortchanging my HLS-5687 capabilities going that route?

Not necessarily. The 5687 will upconvert the signal to 1080p, if it is not alredy there, so it will take the 1080i output from the Oppo and scale it up. On the 960, if you let the player upconvert to 1080p, then the set gets its native resolution and there is nothing for it to do to the signal. The set and the 960 both use the same chip for upconverting, so I don't know if there is really an advantage as to which one to use. I have that set up and I let the player upconvert and send the 5687 its native resolution, but that's just me. I looked at the Oppo but there seemed to be a great deal of macroblocking issues so I went with the Samsung, figuring that products from the same source might talk to each other a little better, plus I avoided another DVI to HDMI cable. My STB is in that situation already, and one is enough for me.

The 5687 will accept 1080p via HDMI, component or VGA inputs. That has been confirmed by users.

Wondering whether there is is noticable difference between 1080i & 1080p output via HDMI to a Sammy HLS which supposedly is capable of accepting 1080p). I read a lot on this forum and others, and would like to think that the 960 would be my best choice. However, many rave about the OPPO products, yet they upconvert "only" up to 1080i. Will I be shortchanging my HLS-5687 capabilities going that route?

As I mentioned in my review (months ago, by now), there is a slight but definite difference betweeen 1080i and 1080p outputting to my Westinghouse lvm-37w1 which also uses the Genesis/Faroudja chipset as deinterlacer. Probably, most TV would not offer anything superior to the Westy in terms of deinterlacing capability. Nonetheless, the motion with the output set to 1080p looks "smoother." In principle, for movies from film source there should be no difference at all. Why there is, I don't know for sure. It's not a huge difference, and this might not be a big deal if the picture quality is better with the Oppo. Wizzak says he like the PQ on the Sony better than the HD960...

Mofongo

Well, I tried the HD960 and wound up taking it back.

I had a lot of issues with the HDMI out to my HP MD5880. Namely, the player would randomly display snow on picture at 1080p until I either cycled the players output resolution full tilt or unplugged the HDMI cable and plugged it back in. Samsung says it's due to HDCP issues but, why when I cycled the resolution or re-seated the HDMI cable would these go away?

I also ran DVE and learned that this player could not pass a below black signal through HDMI (at 1080p). I confirmed this by running DVE in my RP56 which in turn did pass the below black signal.

I felt the HD960 was a decent player and provided a sharp picture but the HDMI issue was just too annoying and I couldn't notice enough of an overall picture improvement over my ancient RP56 to justify the price payed.

It seems my old RP56, even without up conversion is still a decent player.

Anybody tried viewing JPG's with the HD960? Is it quick and responsive?

any answers to this?

Tarheel72,

What settings are you using with the Samsung 960? Are you using the default settings?

I just got mine today and haven't had chance to play with the settings yet. I will be pairing it with a Samsung HLP 5063. Hopefully with good results.

Thanks

I use it with the HLS5687. I am working from memory, but I believe I have all of the picture settings at 1 and the black level setting at 7.5, with the machine doing a full upconvert to 1080p and sending that to the TV via HDMI, which is a 1080p set. After I did the settings on the player, I ran DVE on the TV and calibrated. So in other words I tried to make the player neutral and ran the pictures setting on the TV. You will want to set bitstream to ON.

Somebody please tell me how you make this player region free.

I had the 960 for about a month, and I am not thrilled with the PQ. Maybe I was expecting something closer to HD. After all, the claim is "near HD"... Also thought that the Dcdi chip will be a factor. Overall, I saw some serious flaws in the PQ when watching The March of the Penguins. In fairness, there may be too much black in the documentary (those darn birds...). I also didn't care for the unresolved issue of the "HDMI audio not supported" message (see previous postings by Tarheel72 and others). I wonder if a Samsung DVD-HD860, now available as a refurb for about $45 can perform at about the same PQ, as a stop-gap until more media availability and market forces will make the true HD platform (whichever may win) more mainstream and affordable. I might give it a shot and report back.

Somebody please tell me how you make this player region free.
http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks.php?dvdplayer=samsung+hd960&hits=50

Dear subscribers, Hello There.. I am new to your forum so be gentle.

But I am in need of your expertise in advice.

I have an older (Maybe 2000 model year) Samsung 55" HDTV but with no HDMI/DVI inputs. Only component and of course S-Video.

My Tv has 2 component inputs in the back.

Video 1: consist of 480i/480p
Video 2: consist of 480p/180i

The question I have is the TV itself is still in great shape and works really well, But My dvd player's optic drive took a dump on me and I'm in search for a new dvd player. I would like to be able to utilize my TV to its ability of outputing 180i quality. Is ther any dvd players on the market that has a 1080i output to component level.

Thanks for everyone time and efforts

Your Newbie, The Rodfather

(Hockeytown) Detroit, MI

I had the 960 for about a month, and I am not thrilled with the PQ. Maybe I was expecting something closer to HD. After all, the claim is "near HD"... Also thought that the Dcdi chip will be a factor. Overall, I saw some serious flaws in the PQ when watching The March of the Penguins. In fairness, there may be too much black in the documentary (those darn birds...). I also didn't care for the unresolved issue of the "HDMI audio not supported" message (see previous postings by Tarheel72 and others). I wonder if a Samsung DVD-HD860, now available as a refurb for about $45 can perform at about the same PQ, as a stop-gap until more media availability and market forces will make the true HD platform (whichever may win) more mainstream and affordable. I might give it a shot and report back.

I am very pleased with the 860 and was looking at the 960 and oppo as upgrades, I am suprised it did not live up to your expectations as many in the forums like it.
What Picture settings did you use on the 960 and what TV and did you Calibrate with THX or AVIA?
:o
It may well just need calibration, I know I felt the same with the 860, until I turned brightness and sharpness way down on it and of course progressive on. I actaully had it off to see if my tv did it better for a few weeks.

Hi everyone,

Do I really need 1080p anyway?

I have a Westinghouse lvm-37w1 LCD which has 1080p resolution and accepts 1080p input via DVI (and VGA). Consequently, I am very interested in getting an upconverting DVD player that does provide 1080 lines of resolution. The 37w1 has a semi-decent deinterlacer, although it is not perfect. 1080i broadcasts, for example, show alot of blurring during movement. However, for movie sources that are only 24 fps, you can in theory reconstruct a perfect progressive image from the two halves of the interlaced frame. My 37w1 has an inverse 3:2 pulldown which is supposed to accomplish this. This weekend, I watched an HD-DVD demo setup at Best Buy with the Toshiba HD-DVD player and the lvm-42w2 1080p display and the result was awesome. Even though the Toshiba was outputting 1080i, the 42w2 (which has the same deinterlacing technology as the 37w1) was able to flawlessly reconstruct the progressive frames and display them accordingly. There were absolutely no interlacing artifacts at all. Consequently, does it really matter that the DVD player is outputting 1080p vs 1080i? For a DVD of a broadcast source, probably. But for movies, it might not matter at all. In any case, I am not sure either way and would appreciate any opinions anyone has.

Mofongo

Interesting you should mention the LVM 37w1 and the Samsung HD-960 in the same posting. I too bought a Westinghouse LVM-37w1, and have been cursing DVD player manufacturers ever since.

I've not been able to find an upconverting DVD player (including the Samsung HD-960) that will talk to a non-HDCP DVI (or HDMI) interface such as one finds on the LVM-37w1. I searched for any hint of rumor that the HD-960 could be "unlocked" to talk to a non-HDCP monitor, but no joy.

Personally, I've always thought that HDCP was a "solution in search of a problem", because no one is foolish enough to replicate uncompressed output. What's the point? If you're going to pirate content, then you're going to use the untransformed source (i.e. an MPEG stream from DVB or off a DVD).

So, for those of us that have a 1080p monitor that doesn't do HDCP, what are our options for upconverting? Or do we just have to wait until HD-DVD players become more affordable, and watch our SD DVD's on that?

Back to Westinghouse 42" and HD960 problem - has anybody figured out yet why 1080p isn't working over HDMI?

I hate to think that it's TV's problem: TV doesn't communicate correctly with HD960 via HDMI, so HD960 thinks that it doesn't have 1080p...

just visiting from the HP DLP Forum as I contemplate purchase of a Samsung 960.

fyi...when I purchased my HP MD6580 at the end of the winter, I am near positive that talk at that time was suggesting that even though there were a number of 1080p sets out in the market, that the HP models were the only ones that were capable of accepting 1080p INPUT signals.

you may want to tackle any issues you're having with your Westinghouse with that in mind.

good luck...Mike

Absolutely false. There are several sets that accept 1080p. I have a Samsung HLS5687w and it will accept a 1080p signal over HDMI, component and VGA inputs. This is listed in the product specs and has been verified by owners. I am sure that other brands will as well.

Sounds more like a handshake issue to me. Maybe each side expects the other to be active?

Absolutely false. There are several sets that accept 1080p. I have a Samsung HLS5687w and it will accept a 1080p signal over HDMI, component and VGA inputs. This is listed in the product specs and has been verified by owners. I am sure that other brands will as well.

Sounds more like a handshake issue to me. Maybe each side expects the other to be active?

there very well may be NOW...all I was really saying is that a great number of 1080p sets (as recent as earlier THIS YEAR) did NOT accept 1080p signals even though everybody thinks of them as "1080p" sets. There are many owners who have not entirely clued into this point yet (as there has been little reason to until now) and there are enough reported problems out there from many owners with many different sets to suggest it is more likely a 1080p reception problem and NOT a handshake problem...if individual owners know their sets to be capable then obviously they can investigate from a different angle.

cheers...moo

I just bought the Samsung DVD-HD960 and I think it's awsome! I've got a Sharp 45inch LCD playing movies at 1080i which is slightly clearer than 720p when testing with a still image on the 960. The box includes a good quality HDMI cable which is another excellent selling point. I bought it at TigerDirect here in Toronto for $200. I compared the image to my old 480p DVD players from Toshiba, Samsung and Sony and it's hands down the best DVD player I have seen. I used Gladiator, Finding Nemo and The Incredibles DVD's to compare picture quality, motion blur, etc and it's no contest. It made me feel like I was watching these movies again for the first time since I could see everything at 1080 clarity as best as upconversion can be expected. The upconverting on the 960 is the best thing until HD/Blue-Ray drives are affordable. I really didn't have to tweak the player since I calibrated the TV, except for removing the audio normalization. I found that it removed the crispness of the SFX.
I'm sure the other Faroudja chip players are just as good. I'm just letting people know that this is a quality product. If you're sitting on a fence, get off it and buy the 960. It a really good product.

I just bought the Samsung DVD-HD960 and I think it's awsome! I've got a Sharp 45inch LCD playing movies at 1080i which is slightly clearer than 720p when testing with a still image on the 960. The box includes a good quality HDMI cable which is another excellent selling point. I bought it at TigerDirect here in Toronto for $200. I compared the image to my old 480p DVD players from Toshiba, Samsung and Sony and it's hands down the best DVD player I have seen. I used Gladiator, Finding Nemo and The Incredibles DVD's to compare picture quality, motion blur, etc and it's no contest. It made me feel like I was watching these movies again for the first time since I could see everything at 1080 clarity as best as upconversion can be expected. The upconverting on the 960 is the best thing until HD/Blue-Ray drives are affordable. I really didn't have to tweak the player since I calibrated the TV, except for removing the audio normalization. I found that it removed the crispness of the SFX.
I'm sure the other Faroudja chip players are just as good. I'm just letting people know that this is a quality product. If you're sitting on a fence, get off it and buy the 960. It a really good product.

thanks for another glowing endorsement...the $ outlay is not that huge, so pretty sure I may check it out too (because my component output is pretty mediocre with my current player...barely better than my S-video)...I'm more concerned about how SLOW the navigation is though too since many have complained about it extensively...have you found it to be quite slow or is that something that maybe has been remedied with updated firmware ? is there a firmware ver# available on any menu ? or download avail on Samsung site ?

I'm otherwise tempted to look at that Sony DVP-NS75 since near all comments are very positive...kinda looking forward to the DCDi though too...not sure what tricks/chip Sony uses to handle jaggies, etc...

I just bought the Samsung DVD-HD960 and I think it's awsome! I've got a Sharp 45inch LCD playing movies at 1080i which is slightly clearer than 720p when testing with a still image on the 960. The box includes a good quality HDMI cable which is another excellent selling point. I bought it at TigerDirect here in Toronto for $200. I compared the image to my old 480p DVD players from Toshiba, Samsung and Sony and it's hands down the best DVD player I have seen. I used Gladiator, Finding Nemo and The Incredibles DVD's to compare picture quality, motion blur, etc and it's no contest. It made me feel like I was watching these movies again for the first time since I could see everything at 1080 clarity as best as upconversion can be expected. The upconverting on the 960 is the best thing until HD/Blue-Ray drives are affordable. I really didn't have to tweak the player since I calibrated the TV, except for removing the audio normalization. I found that it removed the crispness of the SFX.
I'm sure the other Faroudja chip players are just as good. I'm just letting people know that this is a quality product. If you're sitting on a fence, get off it and buy the 960. It a really good product.

fyi...Tiger now has 860 refurbs for $57cdn too...wish they had similar for 960, that'd help some.

Hi Moolala,

I agree $200 isn't that bad considering it seems we'll be waiting years for HD/Blue Ray to stabilize, mature and become affordable.
Regarding the slowness of startup and access - Personally I didn't notice it until people pointed it out. If I can guess I think it takes 5 seconds for a DVD to spin-up and start playing. No more than that. It's no big deal to me. I've tried 15 different DVD's so far, including a couple different types of DVD+R's and they've all been good. It's not like I have to wait 2-3 minutes for an HD player just to startup. If I stop playing a DVD, wait a minute and hit play again to continue, it only takes 1-2 seconds to start where it left off. The way people are writing makes me think it takes a lot longer. I can't say I've used earlier revisions of the 960, but I can say the one I bought works pretty quickly. I checked my Sony and it does start playing a second faster than the 960, but I can't say that's enough to detour me.
I spoke with a friend and his take on the 860 was it’s pretty good too, but if you have a TV larger than 32 inches you can tell the difference that the Faroudja chip makes. If you google it you’ll find similar opinions. My thing is if you’re not that critical of your picture quality then get the 860. The jaggies of my 480 players bothered me enough that I would continually notice them and couldn’t enjoy a movie.
I did look for firmware updates just to see where I stand, but I have yet to find one on Samsung’s site for me.
Also another good thing is the support of SVCD and DivX/XviD formats in this player. I like the fact it’s able to play as many formats as possible. That was my biggest gripe when I first purchased my Sony which it couldn’t play mp3’s or VCD’s without sometime skipping and anomalies. Or even play SVCD and DivX at all. It was behind in supported formats and it still is.

If I can be critical of the 960, I did find that I couldn’t play an XviD encoded at 720p – the screen went blank and I could hear it kept trying to process the file. I waited 20 seconds to see if something would appear, but I had to give-up and hit power. At least it didn’t lock-up. Right now I don’t know if it can play DivX/Xvid’s or anything at 720 or 1080. No screen pops-up stating a limitation when you try to play a higher resolution file. Maybe it’s just a 480 player with upconversion for everything. I know it sounds pretty obvious, but HD/Blue Ray is a new standard on a new medium – if this thing can read DVD’s and play them at 1080, I wonder if it can play higher resolution DivX/XviD files since that’s dependant on the codecs and processing power. I’m still testing if it’s limited to specific frame sizes, codec encoding combinations, etc, or maybe it just can’t decode those resolutions. But I have thrown a variation of 480, 352, 240, etc resolutions and it plays them pretty well. I think there are a few standard frame sizes since a few odd sized videos I threw at it were slightly zoomed into.

Hi HD960 owners,

I've read the Samsung HD860, and HD960 manuals but have a question.

Can either of these units play MP3s and JPGs recorded on a DVD disk?

The DVR145 and DVR-VR345 can do this so it seems the HD860/960 should too.
Unfortunatey, the recording machines don't play JPGs in HD.

Yes it can, but it's a little disappointing. I popped a disk with some 3-5 MB high res images from my 7 MP camera and it was slow viewing them and they looked standard resolution 480 and a little pixelated. If I would guess, it looks like it doesn't have the processing power to decode large JPG's quickly, and they didn't do anything to take advantage of 720 or 1080 with image files. It wipped through smaller 100 KB files no problem.
You can zoom and flip pictures so it's not entirely useless, but the zoom only zooms into the standard definition image it's displaying.

I bought a DVI to HDMI cable and hooked it up to my laptop displaying 1080 on my TV. I found that was far superior and it looked fantastic.

I have a set that only has a 1080i component connection, no HDMI. Will any of these HD DVD or Blu-Ray systems play on my TV?

I have a set that only has a 1080i component connection, no HDMI. Will any of these HD DVD or Blu-Ray systems play on my TV?

All of them will play in high resolution if the discs do not use the image constraint token, ICT and so far no discs in either format have as far as I know. There is no guarantee that future discs won't use it however and if it is used, the discs will be limited to 480p over component.

Chris

Thanks.

I just received my new Samsung DVD-HD960 from Tiger Direct(Samsung USA didn't have anything good to say about them)Yesterday. I quickly hooked the unit up and put in a DVD to watch.
The first thing I noticed in the black was some kind of artifact-different shades of dark grey to black, it took a few seconds but I realized it was a ghost of the previous screen. The picture certainly looked good, but on closer inspection it was full of artifacts around the high contrast areas. When the action started on the screen ghosts would follow the high contrast areas, the faster the action, the more ghosts and the farther apart the ghosts would be.
I switched to the component output and the picture improved dramatically, the ghosting was gone in the action scenes. I wish I had another HDMI cable to see if it's a cable problem, but a new cable is 1/3 the price of the unit. Tiger won't take it back, Samsung says they'll fix it free of charge, kudos to Samsung for no questions warranty, and Tiger will never see my business again.

1. You can get high quality HDMI cables in just a few days from either Monoprice or Blue Jeans Cable, sponsors of this forum. See their links at the top of the page. I am talking less than $10-20, depending on the length you need.

2. I am not sure what your problem might be, but it could be macroblocking. Some displays will exhibit this when using DVD players that utilize the Faroudji chip, which the HD960 incorporates. Switching from HDMI to component of course changes the output from digital to analog. If possible hook the player up to a different TV via HDMI and see if you experience the same results.

3. I have had decent results from Tiger. I got a flat panel computer monitor from them and I also got a super deal on a refurbished Samsung VR325 VHS/DVD player/recorder. I picked it up for only $150 plus I got a $50 rebate, so it was too good to pass up. I only use it to transfer tapes to DVD, so it works great for me. This was several months ago, and I just stumbled onto it. They were prompt to ship it, and I had no issues with Tiger, but I think they are like Amazon, in that they refer you to the manufacturer if you have any problems with the product. That's the price you pay for buying online I guess.

So I ask you guys, is there anything else under $300 that will provide me a GOOD solution for my needs and that can outperform my Denon 2900 with this Sony ?

Thanks

I have the same question (in reference to the 2900 but hooked up to a Westy 42w2).

thx,
Claude

I just received my new Samsung DVD-HD960 from Tiger Direct(Samsung USA didn't have anything good to say about them)Yesterday. I quickly hooked the unit up and put in a DVD to watch.
The first thing I noticed in the black was some kind of artifact-different shades of dark grey to black, it took a few seconds but I realized it was a ghost of the previous screen. The picture certainly looked good, but on closer inspection it was full of artifacts around the high contrast areas. When the action started on the screen ghosts would follow the high contrast areas, the faster the action, the more ghosts and the farther apart the ghosts would be.
I sent the unit to Samsung for service, and in the mean time I ordered an OPPO OPDV971H and hooked it up to my TV. I couldn't believe my eyes, the same ghosting problems on black screens, the actual playback looked much better without any real detectible ghosting, but I could still detect multiple images in the LOST title screens with white on black. Monsters Inc's title screen also left artifacts as the different doors moved around the screen. And then just experimenting I turned on the noise reduction on the OPPO, the picture got as bad as it was with the Samsung player, serious ghosts, jerky choppy motion. Apparently Samsung cheated a bit with the chip they used to achieve 8ms in my LN-S3238D, it doesn't work too well in high contrast situations. I returned the display to Walmart(yeah I know, but I live in a small town and thats all there is except of course for the Kmart)and picked up a Polaroid 373B display. The Polaroid isn't quite as vibrant as the Samsung was, but it's completely free of the ghosting while playing a DVD. So far I am very happy with the new display, and it's 5" larger for the same price. So now I have a HD960 for sale, when I get it back from service that wasn't needed anyway.

Is there a huge difference between the 860 and 960 & which will give me less hassle with my 4095D..... just waitin for Blu-Ray to come down.....

(too bad the 860 wont upconvert on component cables :{)

The OPPO OPDV971H and Samsung DVD-HD960 share similar Faroudja maroblocking (not good) chips which especially shows up in dark scenes, subtle color gradients, etc. and can appear as color banding. There are displays and display settings that are said to reduce the issue but the issue remains.

Most bright scenes look awesome.

It's official. Just returned my HD960 due to severe MB issues on my JVC 61Fn97. It got so bad that in certain scenes, I thought I was watching a cartoon. Tried just about every combination and permutation of settings on the TV and player but couldn't find it.

At its best, the PQ was only (very) marginally better over my Panny XP-30. For example, there was very quick, small combing on fast motions. I really do hope Samsung will release a firmware to minimize MB issue. I also found it odd that the Sammy had way less features than my old Panny, especially since the it was older and cheaper than the Sammy.

Here is my setup:

1) Samsung HL-S7178 (1080P) connected to Onkyo TX-SR674 receiver using HDMI cable.

2) Samsung DVD-HD960 connected to Onkyo using HDMI.

3) Also have Bell 9200 HD-PVR connected to Onkyo with HDMI.

Problem:

When playing DVD getting small video/audio cuts (few miliseconds but enough to notice) about every 5 minutes. HD-DVD is setup to run at 1080P and problem happens selecting DTS or DD5.1.

Bell HD-pvr running at 1080I not giving any issues.

Anyone experienced this?

Right now, I am contemplating connecting the dvd directly to the Samsung tv (It has 2 HDMI ports) but then I would have to run a toshlink to my receiver and also that would basically defeat the purpose of having a receiver that can switch HDMI.

Thanks,

Latest update:

Ran the HD960 thru hdmi at 1080I to the A/V receiver. Cuts are still occurring but less frequently (one or twice over 2 hours vs every 5 mins in 1080P)

I am getting a 960 (to go w/ my Sammy 4095D) whenever Amazon send it... can i hook it up to my 2.1 computer speakers and use the DVD player's remote to control the volume??

The OPPO OPDV971H and Samsung DVD-HD960 share similar Faroudja maroblocking (not good) chips which especially shows up in dark scenes, subtle color gradients, etc. and can appear as color banding. There are displays and display settings that are said to reduce the issue but the issue remains.

No offense, but I am not sure you can make a general statement like this. I have the 960 feeding into a Samsung HLS model. Prior to getting it I invistigated the Oppo. I found lots of people had problems with the Oppo's macroblocking, plus at that time all I could get was the DVI version. I got the 960 instead which had just come out. Since then I have watched lots of different DVD's and have never seen any macroblocking on the display. I know they share similar chips, as does the TV for that matter. But for some reason, the combination of the Oppo and HLS don't seem to get along, whereas the 960 and the HLS seem to work fine together, at least in my case. If by reduced you mean eliminated, then in my case you are correct. It is non existant as far as I can tell.

Here is my setup:

1) Samsung HL-S7178 (1080P) connected to Onkyo TX-SR674 receiver using HDMI cable.

2) Samsung DVD-HD960 connected to Onkyo using HDMI.

3) Also have Bell 9200 HD-PVR connected to Onkyo with HDMI.

Problem:

When playing DVD getting small video/audio cuts (few miliseconds but enough to notice) about every 5 minutes. HD-DVD is setup to run at 1080P and problem happens selecting DTS or DD5.1.

Bell HD-pvr running at 1080I not giving any issues.

Anyone experienced this?

Right now, I am contemplating connecting the dvd directly to the Samsung tv (It has 2 HDMI ports) but then I would have to run a toshlink to my receiver and also that would basically defeat the purpose of having a receiver that can switch HDMI.

Thanks,

Latest update:

Ran the HD960 thru hdmi at 1080I to the A/V receiver. Cuts are still occurring but less frequently (one or twice over 2 hours vs every 5 mins in 1080P)

Here's a thread that throws a little light on your problem: "digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=51469"

Does anyone know when BestBuy or CircuitCity will have the HD-960 in stock again? Both show Sold Out.

I have been waiting for Amazon to ship mine for a week now. Could this mean a price reduction is coming up or new products, ie, another upconverting model, possibly?

I have been waiting for Amazon to ship mine for a week now. Could this mean a price reduction is coming up or new products, ie, another upconverting model, possibly?

Maybe. There's nothing on Samsung's site about the HD-1080 yet. Guess Samsung needs to ship some more units or make more.

Maybe. There's nothing on Samsung's site about the HD-1080 yet. Guess Samsung needs to ship some more units or make more.

I seem to recall reading the HD-1080 was cancelled.

Guys is there somewhere i can get the 960 for use in EUROPE ?
If not will an adapter do the trick and will it play PAL DVDs on a PAL LCD Screen if i unlock it to be region free ?

Here's a thread that throws a little light on your problem: "digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=51469"


I've had this problem as well. I was running the HD-960 through a Denon 2307 and on to a Sony A2000 at 1080p HDMI. Well that was giving me the same drop outs that you experienced. So I checked some threads and it seems to have something to do with passing that 1080p signal through my receiver. So tonight I dropped the resolution down to 720p and I didn't have any problems. I'll have to see if that holds up. It seems that Samsung's permanent solution is to bypass the Receiver and run the HD-960 direct to my display. But that kind of defeats the whole purpose of an HDMI switching receiver. Its all very frustrating.

But for what its worth, I think the picture from the HD-960 is incredible.

Just bought an hd960 from futureshop.ca and just my luck,the unit is DOA!!!Weird thing,first time i get doa an electronics.

Just got my 46"LC46D62U Sharp 1080p tv
Problem with my Samsung DVD HD-960,cant get it to go at 1080p,go my pc connected hdmi->dvi at 1080p working 100%,

Any one else using a HD-960??Ne info on how to fix the resolution?&?

Just got my 46"LC46D62U Sharp 1080p tv
Problem with my Samsung DVD HD-960,cant get it to go at 1080p,go my pc connected hdmi->dvi at 1080p working 100%,

Any one else using a HD-960??Ne info on how to fix the resolution?&?

The HD960 can output 1080P by using the HDMI output.
You can enable this through the setup menu.
Press Menu, Setup, Display Setup, HDMI, change Resolution Setting to Manual, change Resolution to 1080P.
I have the HD960 outputting 1080P to my 37D90U.

here's the link to the manual: http://org.downloadcenter.samsung.com/downloadfile/ContentsFile.aspx?CDSite=SS&CttFileID=939468&CDCttType=UM&ModelType=N&ModelName=DVD-HD960&VPath=UM/200603/20060331092400937_1038D_HD960_XAC.pdf
pages ENG-52 & ENG-53

i guess i have some kind of problem cuz i only see 480p,720p,1080i.

Is there ne similar reports of incomptable display's for 1080p??

edit: seems like unit was defective,got a new one and worked fine at 1080p right from the start

I have the HD960 outputting 1080P to my 37D90U.

How do you find the PQ for your DVD? I got the same TV and i'm thinking about buying this DVD player. I would appreciate it! Any pros and cons would be good! Thanks.

Hi all, fairly new here but have been lurking for quite a while and now that I've picked up my equipment I've decided to join and be a part of this community.

Yesterday I picked up the basic pieces for my HT setup for the basement of my home. I got myself a JVC HD-70FH97 TV and the Samsung HD960 DVD player to go with it.

Set it all up this morning and tried it out, so far I have to say I am impressed. I ordered the DVD player before reading this thread and at first I was worried about whether I was going to be able to play my movies at 1080p or not with this player on my TV but once I got it going it detected the TV via the HDMI connection and put itself to display 1080p on its own. Popped some DVD's in to try out and OMG what a difference on this TV vs. the 27" CRT I was using before. I love it!!!!!

I probably still need to do some tweaking but so far with little input from me on the settings of both the TV and the Samsung I am very happy. I'm not hooking it up yet to a home theatre setup (that's for springtime) so all my sound is just through the TV right now.

Those of you that are still working out the issues with your samsung player I hope you get it resolved, so far I am impressed with the performance of this DVD player on my 70" JVC HDTV.

Tony

How do you find the PQ for your DVD? I got the same TV and i'm thinking about buying this DVD player. I would appreciate it! Any pros and cons would be good! Thanks.

I'm very happy with the performance of this player with the Sharp tv.
IMO I think the HD960 does a better job upconverting than the LC37D90U did with my old DVD player. I used the THX section of a DVD to calibrate the two and find the PQ very good. The menus are a little slow but so are the menus on the Sharp tv.

Does anyone notice major ghosting and artifact through HDMI? At 480p through component I think it looks better then 1080p on HDMI, ghosting and artifact is minimal. This is on an hls5687w. I wish I could compare to my hda1 but the damn thing is DOA.

I was getting ghosting until I turned down the sharpness/edge enhance/noice reduce.

I'm also getting some artifacting/macroblocking on a lot of dvds. Take Revenge of the Sith for example: Anytime there is a lot of one color (red, blue, green) on the screen I see a lot of blocking, especially if the lighting in the scene is low. Is this normal? Do all upconverting players do this?

I was getting ghosting until I turned down the sharpness/edge enhance/noice reduce.

I'm also getting some artifacting/macroblocking on a lot of dvds. Take Revenge of the Sith for example: Anytime there is a lot of one color (red, blue, green) on the screen I see a lot of blocking, especially if the lighting in the scene is low. Is this normal? Do all upconverting players do this?

Ive noticed that as well. I didnt have that problem when I ran 480p through component. That issue isnt as apparant if any through my hdv5000 with sd dvd.

I have a hls-61 dlp samsung and thinking about buying the 960 samsung dvd player. Do these play well together? I'm confused on what I'm reading out here. I want to hook up via HDMI to tv but sound through my home theater receiver, not sure how to hook up sound and settings and such. Help

1) The "least processed" setting is "3" accross the board... NOT "1". "3" is like their "zero" setting.
2) These settings are all disabled in 720p and 480p mode... it specifically says that in their service manuals and the guy made a point in telling me. That is interesting and I don't know if it is 100% true, as you can adjust the settings in 720P mode... but he says they won't do anything to the outgoing image.
3) The "Black" setting is an auto contrast mode, that will reign in scenes that are kicking out high contrast images and generally improve the way black is represented.

So, in a nutshell, the default settings for this unit are the "cleanest" way to send out video.

Thanks for making this call! I was dying to know what "black level" did. As for the rest of the settings, I have a feeling the tech was a little confused. As far as I can tell a setting of "3" across the board DOES modify the signal being sent to the TV. In my case, the TV looks great on its own with HD signals from the cable box. But when I first plugged in the player the default settings gave me a picture that was way too contrasty -- I was losing tons of detail in the black and highlights -- and the color was over-saturated.

So I did numerous tests with various DVDs, running through the same scenes over and over again while making incremental moves to the player's settings, and I found that the best solution for my setup was to leave most settings at "1". There WAS benefit to fooling around with the settings that the TV doesn't have, though. (such as edge enhancement)

Thanks for making this call! I was dying to know what "black level" did. As for the rest of the settings, I have a feeling the tech was a little confused. As far as I can tell a setting of "3" across the board DOES modify the signal being sent to the TV. In my case, the TV looks great on its own with HD signals from the cable box. But when I first plugged in the player the default settings gave me a picture that was way too contrasty -- I was losing tons of detail in the black and highlights -- and the color was over-saturated.

So I did numerous tests with various DVDs, running through the same scenes over and over again while making incremental moves to the player's settings, and I found that the best solution for my setup was to leave most settings at "1". There WAS benefit to fooling around with the settings that the TV doesn't have, though. (such as edge enhancement)

Thanks for the responces in this thread (and the other :)).

You know, there are techs that leave you with an impression that they 110% know what they are talking about, and then there are those who sound like they are leafing through a service manual... which is why, even after speaking with them, I still wasn't convinced that "3" was truly neutral. But, at that point, I was so sick of tweaking, I thought that "3" looked good enough (at least as that is what I calibrated my set against). Then I got the itch again to have one more crack at it and found your post!!!

For now, I have dropped the obvious image processing in the HDMI settings down to 1, and I am going to live with it for a while and see what my eyes "see."

PS: Did you run through your tests with Avia or DVE for a static reference?

We just got one HD960 yesterday to go along with the Sharp 46D62 tv and oh my god did samsung screw up my Christmas. It was "brain damaged" out of the box. The set doesn't seem to respond to commands, it basically "lags" and the lag is sometimes between a 10sec and 1 minute, sometimes even not responding at all lol.
The paper in the box says "Do not return to the store", but what the heck am I gona do, sit and wait for a replacement from samsung? I'm gona call them up tomorrow. :(

Hope it's just my one player.

Question for Pro's.

Just got my hd960, im in russia. Can i try to plug to 220v, i've seen the psu inside and it's impulse supply just the usual.... i thought it may handle 220v with no problem... i think 120v spec is just a usa precaution ? (usa only product)
Or shoud i get transformer anyways ?

Thanx

Thanks for the responces in this thread (and the other :)).

...

PS: Did you run through your tests with Avia or DVE for a static reference?

I haven't yet, no. All of my adjustments were made by trial and error on various channels and with different DVDs and types of scenes (light, dark, saturated, etc.). Also, as an exeriment I fooled around with the THX utilities on the recent Lucasfilm DVDs. I'm happy with the results of my tinkering, and I think I've got a pretty accurate picture -- or at least one that looks accurate to me. Sidenote: I'm a graphic designer by trade, and I'm very finicky about levels, color and level of detail in highlights and shadows. Some might say "anal retentive". ;)

But in any case... my DVE disc is on order and will arrive here this week!

Btw, i installed my HD960 with my IN72 thru HDMI.
Using 1080p output and im pretty amazed with PQ, considering it's 180usd unit, not 3k unit !

I do notice blocking but ONLY on PAL/25fps material, although it's still very watchable.
I rekon new firmware is in order soon =)

Merry Christmas

Oh ! for the bloke who cant get 1080p !!!

I had this problem - my solution was to use supplied HDMI cable (mine wasnt working at 1080p - i too hadnt seen 1080p in the menu and had only 3 resolutions) and restart PJ/display and HD960 !

You'll get it set up in the end - i guess it's a glitch in detection routine.

Just purchased the Samsung DVD-HD960, when I play dvds over HDMI @ 5.1 channel i get this loud rining noise. Why is it doing this? I m running the player into my Denon DVR-887 receiver. When i play the dvd in 2 channel stereo the rining is gone. Only in 5.1 does it give the rining.

Another problem that is happening is when I play a movie every 10 minutes i get a black screen, then the movie comes on again. How do i stop it from doing this?

anybody have any idea?

I'd check your hdmi cable first - try another

I recently bought a Samsung DLP (HL-S6187W) and was looking at getting a dvd player to go with it. After reading reviews I went with the Samsung 960 and have not had any luck getting a decent picture. I have it connected with HDMI and set on 1080p. Im not sure if it just hasnt "clicked" or if the settings need changed. I was wondering what setting those of you had that have achieved a great picture with the same type of set up I have. If there were any changes to the tv what were they and is there any calibration needed (where would I purchase and what kind)? Thanks for all the help

I recently bought a Samsung DLP (HL-S6187W) and was looking at getting a dvd player to go with it. After reading reviews I went with the Samsung 960 and have not had any luck getting a decent picture. I have it connected with HDMI and set on 1080p. Im not sure if it just hasnt "clicked" or if the settings need changed. I was wondering what setting those of you had that have achieved a great picture with the same type of set up I have. If there were any changes to the tv what were they and is there any calibration needed (where would I purchase and what kind)? Thanks for all the help

Many here use DVE (Digital Video Essentials) or Avia, single DVD's with directions to adjust your display for the given player. Both are cumbersome and slow, but eventually you can improve the video quality if you stick with it.

Chris

I recently bought a Samsung DLP (HL-S6187W) and was looking at getting a dvd player to go with it. After reading reviews I went with the Samsung 960 and have not had any luck getting a decent picture. I have it connected with HDMI and set on 1080p. Im not sure if it just hasnt "clicked" or if the settings need changed. I was wondering what setting those of you had that have achieved a great picture with the same type of set up I have. If there were any changes to the tv what were they and is there any calibration needed (where would I purchase and what kind)? Thanks for all the help

I had my 960 on an hls5687w and I did not like it. SD dvds look a lot better through my hda1 toshiba hd dvd player.

I bouught the 960 a few weeks ago and now i think there is a problem. I notice a long pause half way in the movie, i suggest its the layer change. In other players it just a split second but this one its like 4-5 seconds of a silll frame. Anyone else have this problem?

Hello experts,

I'm thinking of upgrading my sony ns575p player. I bought this one a couple of years ago when the tube I was using was a 27 inch sony trinitron.

This summer, I designed a home theater room and installed the following :

- projector : SANYO PLVZ4 ( 720p DLP projector ) This projector does have an HDMI input
- amp : DENON AVR-1506
- speakers : PARADIGM
- DVD to projector connection : component cables

The sony DVD player I'm using seems to give an OK job but a friend suggested I look into some DVD players that upscale the 480 signal to 720 via the HDMI interface.

Tonight, I rushed over to the nearest BestBuy and found the SAMSUNG DVD-HD960 that seemed to do what my buddy was telling me about.

Since many of you seem to know a lot about this DVD player, my questions are :
- Will this upgrade be worthwhile ? Will I notice an improvement over my old Sony ? Unfortunatelly the salesman at BestBuy wasn't able to tell me much ...

I'm hoping someone on this forum can guide me ...

Thanks for any input,

mnb

I know that there is a region free version of the HD960. I have also heard that there is a hack to make it region free without the added cost. I am wondering if anybody here, in the states, has tried it? I have an old region-free Pioneer 578 now, and would like to upgrade to the HD960.

TIA
Poirot

See videohelp.com. This hack works great on my 941. Most universal remotes should do the trick. Don't use the "Angle" hack--it is for non-USA models.
PS--I see there is now a USA hack using the Samsung remote. Give it a try!
esteps

I know that there is a region free version of the HD960. I have also heard that there is a hack to make it region free without the added cost. I am wondering if anybody here, in the states, has tried it? I have an old region-free Pioneer 578 now, and would like to upgrade to the HD960.

TIA
Poirot

I bouught the 960 a few weeks ago and now i think there is a problem. I notice a long pause half way in the movie, i suggest its the layer change. In other players it just a split second but this one its like 4-5 seconds of a silll frame. Anyone else have this problem?

I've had a similar issue myself. DVDs look good on my Samsung 4095 though.

anyone else having problems playing divx/xvid files... for example when the divx file is a 2.35:1 ratio it is automatically being stretched to fit the whole screen. I want the black bars to be left in there because then the picture just looks bad... Also even for 4:3 divx files the player stretches to take up my whole widescreen display.... Has anyone else seen this or can help me out?

Wow, it seems to me that this HD960(which i just bought a couple of weeks ago) is very problematic. I'm also experiencing freezing and overall the picture doesn't look all that great. Do i need to play around with my settings? I'm watching movies on a Sony Bravia KDL 32S2010 which i really love but should i change the player? Any suggestions?

I bought the DVD-HD960 from amazon and here is my experience with it in a few hours of use over 2 days:
- when I opened the box, player had some finger-print like smudges on the top cover although box was brand new sealed
- hooked up with Samsung DLP 1080p TV with included HDMI cable
- attached to receiver with an audio optical digital cable (Monster THX cable) but the player's socket was loose and shaky and the cable did not snap/click in - a loose fit.
- popped in Matrix DVD. Did get audio in receiver but had to change the default audio setting of player to bitstream to get 5.1 audio. But any movement of the player caused the optical cable to fall out of the socket.
- all menus are really slow and remote buttons have to be pressed for a few moments for the player to respond
- picture looked much better on TV as compared to my old Toshiba non-progressive player and fast action was much smoother. Also the image filled the screen well without any stretching.
- then the bigger PROBLEMS:
- I tried playing CD-R CDs I had (recorded on Memorex CDs, red and gold). The first song played, then the player froze on the second song. The only way out was to power off the player and hit eject which powers it on then ejects (after 4-5 secs). I tried several times with same results. I can play these CD-Rs on a $20 cheapo DVD player that I have as a spare, yet this player cannot.
- Next I tried to play a DVD-RW - the player loaded the DVD and it showed "MENU" on its display but outputted white noise to the TV. Then I tried to power the player on and off, but same result. Then I tried to eject it, but the player froze. Now, the player won't eject my DVD at all and the player is unusable.

I'm not sure if I had bad luck with this player, but it seems like its a poor quality player to have such multiple problems. Seems good while it works. I'll be returning this one for sure. Not sure if I should get a replacement and get lucky with a better piece.

I bouught the 960 a few weeks ago and now i think there is a problem. I notice a long pause half way in the movie, i suggest its the layer change. In other players it just a split second but this one its like 4-5 seconds of a silll frame. Anyone else have this problem?

Yes, I have same problem. I think it is happening with with 2 layer DVD when switching from one layer to another specially under HDMI connection. I have not found a solution yet.

I know that there is a region free version of the HD960. I have also heard that there is a hack to make it region free without the added cost. I am wondering if anybody here, in the states, has tried it? I have an old region-free Pioneer 578 now, and would like to upgrade to the HD960.

TIA
Poirot

I made HD960 a region free player by means of a remote controller to change Prom setting in the DVD player.

I'm thinking about buying the Samsung HD960 but I have a question I need answered first. I thought I read somewhere (I can't find the reference again) that the HD960 does not output surround sound through the HDMI output; only through the optical or coax outputs. Is this true?

If so, anyone who has the HD960 and an Onkyo SR674, how do you have your system setup for surround?

After reading some threads, I have come to the conclusion Samsung should recall this model and offer replacements. I have had mine sine Nov. and it has already been to the repair center once and it is probably going to go back again. It freezes and has nothing to do with the layering on the DVD. The picture is crap compared to my Samsung DVD HD345VR 1080i up convert. They are both connected HDMI to a Samsung HLS6188W DLP. There must be some that are working the way they were designed? :mad:

After reading some threads, I have come to the conclusion Samsung should recall this model and offer replacements. I have had mine sine Nov. and it has already been to the repair center once and it is probably going to go back again. It freezes and has nothing to do with the layering on the DVD. The picture is crap compared to my Samsung DVD HD345VR 1080i up convert. They are both connected HDMI to a Samsung HLS6188W DLP. There must be some that are working the way they were designed? :mad:
You know i'm starting to think this dvd player is a piece of crap myself now. Everything i throw in there freezes up now. I have a week left to exchange it and the only other one they have that i may be interested in is Sony’s DVP-NS75H

You know i'm starting to think this dvd player is a piece of crap myself now. Everything i throw in there freezes up now. I have a week left to exchange it and the only other one they have that i may be interested in is Sony’s DVP-NS75H

I posted my terrible experience with the HD960 earlier. Returned it. Later I tried Sony's DVP-NS75H - it was fine for playing normal DVDs. It was ok but not greatly impressive. But I did not like the quality of home video DVDs burnt on a DVD-RW (with lots of compression) used with Samsung's 61" 1080p DLP HDTV - got the macro blocking artifacts.

I decided to give a try to the Oppo DV-970HD (1080i upscaling) and got it yesterday. I must say that the video for DVDs is spectacular. For my setup, it seems much better compared to the other DVD players I tried. Much less macro-blocking for the same home-video recording. Oppo's response to the remote is very quick too. I like the fact that it is multi-region and supports so many more formats including Divx/Xvid (which I have not used but who knows, I may need that). Also has memory card and USB flash drive reader to display picture slide shows.

With high resolution large TV screen sizes, the difference in video quality from different DVD players really sticks out which would have probably been unnoticeable IMO with smaller screens. Too bad one has to try different DVD players to see which one works for a given setup. The Oppo DV-970HD works for me great.

Hey everyone,

I, like many others on this forum am having trouble gettig a "HD looking" image out of my player/DLP.

I just purchased the Samsung HLS-5687W, and the Samsung DVD-HD960, thinking that because they were the same manufacturer, it would be really simple to get a great looking pic in no time..... AAAAHHH!!!!!!!! boy was I wrong. I was wondering if someone who has already used the AVIA (or other) setup disc (or anyone who has similar units and is satisfied with image quality) could go on their HD960 and look up and post the following :

Menu, Setup, Display Setup, HDMI:

Resolution Setting : Manual
Resolution : 1080p
Format: TV
Contrast: Level 3
Sharpness: Level 3
Noise Reduction: Level 2
Edge Enhancement: Level 1

Menu, Setup, Display Setup, Picture Quality:

Black Level: On
Brightness: Level 1
Color Saturation: Level 3

Obviously putting in the "level" settings that you have, not me...



then, .... On the HLS 50/56/61 DLP....

Menu, Picture, Mode:

Mode: Movie
Contrast: 37
Brightness: 52
Sharpeness: 47
Color: 49
Tint: R49
Color Tone: Warm 1

Any other settings or changes that you made to help the image quality would be really great.

Thanks for all your help in advance,

Ndeedone

PS - I wouldn't even mind if you just took a picture of the settings and posted that.

I'm guessing that this forum is "dead" due to the length of it???

You know i'm starting to think this dvd player is a piece of crap myself now. Everything i throw in there freezes up now. I have a week left to exchange it and the only other one they have that i may be interested in is Sony’s DVP-NS75H

Well, i ended up just replacing the unit with another one and this one seems to be much better. The discs aren't freezing anymore.

Hey everyone,

I, like many others on this forum am having trouble gettig a "HD looking" image out of my player/DLP.

I just purchased the Samsung HLS-5687W, and the Samsung DVD-HD960, thinking that because they were the same manufacturer, it would be really simple to get a great looking pic in no time..... AAAAHHH!!!!!!!! boy was I wrong. I was wondering if someone who has already used the AVIA (or other) setup disc (or anyone who has similar units and is satisfied with image quality) could go on their HD960 and look up and post the following :

Menu, Setup, Display Setup, HDMI:

Resolution Setting : Manual
Resolution : 1080p
Format: TV
Contrast: Level 3
Sharpness: Level 3
Noise Reduction: Level 2
Edge Enhancement: Level 1

Menu, Setup, Display Setup, Picture Quality:

Black Level: On
Brightness: Level 1
Color Saturation: Level 3

Obviously putting in the "level" settings that you have, not me...



then, .... On the HLS 50/56/61 DLP....

Menu, Picture, Mode:

Mode: Movie
Contrast: 37
Brightness: 52
Sharpeness: 47
Color: 49
Tint: R49
Color Tone: Warm 1

Any other settings or changes that you made to help the image quality would be really great.

Thanks for all your help in advance,

Ndeedone

PS - I wouldn't even mind if you just took a picture of the settings and posted that.


Hi,
I am in the same boat. I have the Samsung HLS 6187 and brought the Samsung HD960 thinking they would be great togther because of the 1080P. Well, I haven't been blown away with the picture quality either. I would be interested in other members settings as well who have the same set up (i.e., HLS 6187 and HD 960). My settings are as follows:

My HLS 6187 Settings:

Mode: Movie
Contrast: 50
Brightness: 42
Sharpeness: 0
Color: 40
Tint: 50
Color Tone: Warm 1

HD-960 Settings:

Resolution Setting : Auto
Resolution : 1080p
Format: TV
Contrast: Level 3
Sharpness: Level 1
Noise Reduction: Level 1
Edge Enhancement: Level 1

Menu, Setup, Display Setup, Picture Quality:

Black Level: On
Brightness: Level 3
Color Saturation: Level 3

You know i'm starting to think this dvd player is a piece of crap myself now. Everything i throw in there freezes up now. I have a week left to exchange it and the only other one they have that i may be interested in is Sony’s DVP-NS75H

I don't have the HD960 but I do have the Samsung DVD-HD941 and DVD-HD950 in addition to the Sony DVP-NS75H. I use the players with various displays at my home and my girlfriend's house, 720p LCD projectors and 30" direct view CRT HD displays. The NS75H was the least expensive but offers slightly better region 1 DVD-V picture quality in my opinion now. Of course the other players are universal and do much more, but if only region 1 DVD-V is needed, the Sony player is a very good budget player in my opinion.

Chris

Hey elove,

thanks for the reply.... as soon as I get a chance, I will go try those settings and see the difference. Also, did you set yours with calibration disc, or eyeball?

I may have already posted my Samsung HD-DVD960 settings here before but here they go again (see page 4):

CLICK HERE (http://www.cahabahometheater.com/documents/setups/tv_dvd.pdf)

I am reposting this in the hope that more people have bought the 960 and maybe someone else has experienced this. Has anyone found a reason and/or solution for this message being displayed when using the HDMI?

To recap, I have the HD960 hooked to the HLS5687, via HDMI. Audio to the AVR635, via Coax. Also have a STB connected to the TV via HDMI, no issues. TV speakers off. Message displays at the top of the sceen for about 5 seconds when disc is started, then disappears. Regardless of what the HDMI setting is on, Standard TV, TV-RGB, or Monitor, the message appears. Yes, the HD960 digital bitstream is ON and must be on in order for me to send a DD or DTS signal to my receiver via the coax or optical output from the HD960, so turning it off is not an option. I verified that the 635 can receive both DD or DTS in this arrangement. Turn Bitstream off, and only analog goes to the receiver.

Any ideas? Is there some other setting I am missing here?

Amen!

Has ANYONE figured this out? I have the exact same problem on my 860 and it drives me nuts (as well as the utterly terrible response time of the unit and random freezes/crashes)

Wesley....

WOW!

Mine is going back just waiting on my ups return to come in the mail. I would not recommend this player and I was very dissatisfied.

Thinking picking up the Sammy DVD-HD860 and hooking it up to the 37" Olevia HDTV via HDMI and going to my surround through compistie cable. Is this a good buy for the cheap price or would I be better served to not buy it and just use my philips progressive scan? Thanks!

You will get a very annoying on-screen message stating "HDMI AUDIO NOT SUPPORTED", even though this is precisely how you should connect the player for digital audio and digital video. (the HDMI connection does not carry a DA signal)

You will get a very annoying on-screen message stating "HDMI AUDIO NOT SUPPORTED", even though this is precisely how you should connect the player for digital audio and digital video. (the HDMI connection does not carry a DA signal)

I think I finally figured this out. The reason you get the message is because the display does not have an internal DD processor for the HDMI connection so it is converting it to normal stereo, if you are using the TV's internal speakers. The DVD player is detecting this and is alerting you to the fact that it is outputting DD5.1, but the TV does not support it. No display will as far as I know. They will pass through DD5.1 from OTA but not from other sources. I do not have a receiver that has HDMI inputs, but I would imagine that if you connect the player to a receiver that accepts and processes audio via HDMI, then you do not see this information on the screen. maybe someone could confirm for me?

So far I like the player. I have had no problems with it and I think I get a good picture. I set all of the levels to neutral and made all picture adjustments with the TV, which is a Samsung HLS5687w, while running DVE and using the Movie picture mode. I have had both the player and the TV since June.

I have my TV set to internal mute, too bad it cant sense that. It would also be nice if Samsung could program the DVD player to recognize when a DA cable via optical or coax was connected which would solve this problem.

But I can try this on my friend's pioneer as he has HDMI switching.

As far as the player itself goes, the 860 is a huge POS. The response time is atrocious, picture quality is mariginal, it never remembers the timestamp in a movie if you stop the player, the settings revert after a power cycle...the list goes on and on for me.

Hello I recently purchased this DVD player to go along with my plasma samsung hp4253. On some dark scenes I am noticing a grainy effect which isnt too pleasant. Does anyone have any ideas why the dvds arnt looking "spectacular" like some have been reporting?

I'm thinking of getting the Samsung DVD-HD960. I'm noticing this model is out of stock at many online retailers. Is it that popular, or is a new model coming out? Looking for a 1080p upconvert player to go along with Sharp 46" LCD 1080p. I don't see too many 1080p upconvert players out there.

I think they are showing out of stock because Samsung might have finally relized this player is JUNK. But most probably they are supposed to release a new model and their releases are usually scheduled for April. But they never make that date! Wait, because the 960 is a crap shoot.

What's with the March/April/May crap? Sammy, ship the damn players!

This is DVD (a 10-year-old format) not some new-fangled tech!

Now we have to wait till May just to see if the DVD-HD1080 sucks.

I never bought the DVD-HD960 and reading about it makes me glad I didn't. I do own the DVD-HD841, DVD-HD941 and DVD-HD950 since I wanted to have a fleet of inexpensive universal players to play my large collection of DVD-V/DVD-A/SACD well into the future. I like all three players with the HD950 my favorite. If the HD1080 is released and is a universal player, I might look at it, although I think I probably have enough invested in Samsung equipment now.

Chris

I just bought the 860. It was $50 shipped for a refurb so I figured why not. I know the Oppos are better but this was a great price.

I picked up a Sammy DVD-HD960 at the local Navy Exchange for $179.00 about 2 months ago. Man, I was excited. Brought it home, replaced my old Pioneer 480p player and used the HDMI to the Mits WD-52631 and the coax (or fiber optic..can't remember) to the Pioneer receiver. WOW! PQ was perfect. I was like jeez, and I can do without an HD-DVD or BD until they finish the fight. So, after watching one movie, things started to go wrong. First it wouldn't turn off. After unplugging it to "reboot" I tried to watch another movie, only to have it "lock up". Couldn't get the disc out. Let it sit for a day thinking it was too hot or something. Still couldn't get disc out until I kept pushing all the buttons on the front panel repeatedly in no particular order. Finally, MY DISC!

So, I took it back thinking I got a bum unit. Picked up another one. Long story short, same thing....one movie then it crashed. This one would lock up at the menu and wouldn't go any further. Needless to say, I was bummed but took it back thinking the technology is just too new and the bugs haven't been worked out yet.

Too bad, 'cause the PQ was awesome. Gonna get the 1080p Oppo. I hope it has a better longevity record.

It was amusing to read these posts....especially since It really seems the samsung 960 is a piece of crap. I have the Onkyo 674 and the samsung 1080p dvd player. During 1080p playback the audio and video would delay for a split second every 10 mins or so. Originally I thought it was the dvd player and exchanged it for a new one - but when it did it again and I got smart and like many others and connected the dvd straight to the tv - I had no problems. So I thought it must be the receiver. I fought long and hard with Onkyo too (25min everytime waiting to talk to product support) and brought it to a service rep for the resistor switch out. Then I too brought it home with the excitement of it being fixed - only to see it have the same problem. Now after reading I'm thinking otherwise. What my solution - I can't exchange the dvd or return it and I don't want to buy another. So if anyone has any ideas - I'm all ears. :mad:

I bouught the 960 a few weeks ago and now i think there is a problem. I notice a long pause half way in the movie, i suggest its the layer change. In other players it just a split second but this one its like 4-5 seconds of a silll frame. Anyone else have this problem?

Yes, I have the same problem with my HD-960 I bought in January. It also always resets to 480P and I have to change it back to 1080P each time it is powered up. I was searching the Samsung website for any firmware updates but there does not appear to be one.

I am having a real hard time playing DVD-Rs on this thing. On a good amount of them the picture skips constantly. Anyone else experience this problem?

I am having a problem related to the Samsung HD-960 DVD player.

I have my HD-960 connected to my Samsung LN-S4695 via HDMI cable, however whenever I insert a DVD, and I choose Progressive On, I get a green screen. Once I turn Progressive Off, the screen becomes viewable again.

Anyhelp in solving this problem would be appreciated.

I am having a problem related to the Samsung HD-960 DVD player.

I have my HD-960 connected to my Samsung LN-S4695 via HDMI cable, however whenever I insert a DVD, and I choose Progressive On, I get a green screen. Once I turn Progressive Off, the screen becomes viewable again.

Anyhelp in solving this problem would be appreciated.
I hooked mine up to my Samsung 5687W and I got a pink screen, but I believe you want the progressive off when you hook up the HDMI cable and set the resolution........I have to check the manual when I get home.

The spec sheet for the HD960 states that it upconverts to 1080p but then says that the HDMI output supports 1080i/720p. Is this a misprint ? Does this player output at 1080p over HDMI ?

I couldn't find an HD960 anywhere, my local BB thought maybe the unit was recalled due to defects.

Ended up getting the new 1080p upconvert Panasonic s53 for $99.

Samsung site has removed the list of online retailers. One of the results of my google was CDW and their site states that as of Feb 14, 2007 this product has been discontinued.

If you've gotta have an inexpensive player with Farjouda processing go look for a LGDVB418 refurbished on ebay. And btw-I checked on Samsungs site and the 960 was still listed-don't know where you were looking.

If you've gotta have an inexpensive player with Farjouda processing go look for a LGDVB418 refurbished on ebay. And btw-I checked on Samsungs site and the 960 was still listed-don't know where you were looking.

It's listed but they do not have the online retailers link so that's when I did the google.

I've had a DVD-HD960 for 2 months now and I love it-it was darn hard to find but well worth it, I use it set at 720P and output it through hdmi to my Insignia crt hdtv-very good picture-about as good as my LGDVB418 through componet. Interesting thing-it appeares to have a multidisc resume feature.

I have the 960 and have issues that I wish Samsung can release a firmware for already.
I am having HDMI handshake issues, where I would have to keep swiching over from different inputs.. like from DVD to sat back to DVD in order to see a stable picture on it.
It can get very very annoying!
I also don't find the upconversion being so great either as some have praised it to have, like the reviews over at Cnet.

Are you using an external hdmi switchbox?

No I using my TV's input.